Platinum (Pt) catalysts are often preferred catalysts in many catalytic applications for their generally high activity rate and effectiveness. However, platinum tends to be a very expensive material. A variety of platinum alloys have been used as catalysts. Current approaches to platinum catalyst formation include alloying platinum to form catalyst materials. By alloying platinum, the platinum loading is lowered which also tends to lower raw material costs accordingly. However, alloying can also alter electronic structure and affects catalytic properties. Similar difficulties are generally encountered with other catalyst materials. A relatively large effort has focused on core-shell particles where a less expensive material forms a core and a catalytically active material is formed as a surrounding shell. However, the performance and availability of such materials has been limited.